Google and The New York Times launch daily trivia challenge

Google today announced a new daily trivia game that actually encourages players to use the Internet to find answers. The game A Google A Day was conceived in collaboration with The New York Times. Trivia afficinados can find a single trivia question posted daily at agoogleaday.com or in print above the Times’ crossword puzzle.

“As the world of information continues to explode, we hope A Google a Day triggers your imagination and helps you discover all the types of questions you can ask Google—and get an answer,” Dan Russell, a user experience researcher with Google, said in a blog post.

The questions are designed to test Googling abilities rather than the breadth of players’ knowledge. For example, today’s question reads, “Two future presidents signed me. Two didn’t because they were abroad. Despite my importance, modern viewers seem to think I have a glaring spelling error. What is it?” If you know the answer without the aid of an Internet search, our hats are off to you. And also, you may yet find a challenge if you try back later in the week. Google is promising that the trivia will follow in the vein of crossword puzzles by ramping up difficulty as the week progresses.

To avoid divulging spoilers, Google has designed a special filter on agoogleaday.com that will exclude real-time updates from search results.

Google has never shied away from showing its fun side. There’s the famous Google Doodles that regularly adorn its search page. And, of course, earlier this month, Google carried out its traditional April Fool’s prank by launching a (fake) new feature for its Gmail email service.